Vantaggi
The colleagues on the academic side of Kaplan's business are excellent: interesting, diverse, sophisticated, highly educated, very smart... cool people that are fun to get to know. The product itself is strong: it is a pleasure to deliver the curriculum, which does deliver what it promises to deliver: higher scores on standardized tests for students who follow the regimen. There is no shame in teaching for Kaplan. There is a good deal of scheduling flexibility, too, at least on the academic side of the business.
Svantaggi
There is a huge emphasis on quantitative analysis in a business that is, in some aspects, quite 'soft'... and, just as "No Child Left Behind" fails in its effort to quantify learning and measure the quality of teaching in our public schools, so too does Kaplan fail to effectively measure the performance of its faculty. Unfortunately, compensation increases are based entirely on this poor measurement. While my main work for the company has been in academics, I also have experience in working on the marketing side of the business. Having worked previously in business development, I can say that, while there are some talented creative people at top levels in the company, the marketing program is awful, at least on the regional level. There is a huge disconnect between the front-line employees (sales and customer service people at the centers as well as teachers in the classrooms) and headquarters at 1440 Broadway. Finally, there is a definite "Old Boy" mentality in the company: very few women are in senior positions, and there are decidedly sexist (and perhaps ageist) attitudes among upper and upper-middle managers. One prime offender actually stated an opinion that an on-campus promotion would succeed only if "8 pairs of t*ts" were used to staff the event! Yes, this happened in the 21st century...